Bush Traces How Yale Differs From Harvard

By MAUREEN DOWD, Special to the New York Times

Published: June 11, 1988

DENVER, June 10—
The Yale man was asked how he could make fun of the Harvard man for having a ''boutique'' foreign policy born at an Ivy League school.

Wasn't this, after all, the pot calling the kettle elite?

''No, because Yale's so diffuse, there isn't a symbol, I don't think, in the Yale situation, any symbolism with it,'' Vice President Bush said today in explaining his mocking comments about his Democratic rival, Gov. Michael S. Dukakis, in a fiery speech at the Texas State Convention on Thursday. ''Harvard boutique to me at least has the connotation of liberalism and elitism.''

Speaking to reporters on Air Force Two as he flew from Houston to the Republican National Committee Unity Conference in Denver, Mr. Bush, Yale class of '48, said that there was no ''Yale equivalent that you can identify with or oppose,'' compared with ''Harvard liberalism.'' A 'Massachusetts Liberalism'

The Vice President traced the connection between Harvard and liberalism back to ''the Harvard crowd'' of the Kennedy family and said there was now even more ''of a genuine feeling of liberalism.''

''Out of that Yard comes a specific Massachusetts liberalism,'' insisted the future Republican nominee, wearing a blue windbreaker embroidered in script with ''George Bush, Vice President.'' ''If people feel that way, fine, but I think the voters ought to understand that this is what they feel. I think he's done a good job, Dukakis, in the primary, of being shoved to the center and made to look more reasonable or conservative or moderate by Jesse Jackson.''

Mr. Bush said he did not see a discrepancy in asking voters to ignore his own upper-class upbringing and to focus on what was in his heart, and then to lambaste Mr. Dukakis on the class issue. 'A Philosophical Cult'

Mr. Bush said Harvard represented ''a philosophical enclave'' rather than a statement about class. ''You don't have to be born to that,'' he said. ''I see this as a philosophical cult normally identified with extremely liberal causes.''

Mr. Dukakis is a graduate of Harvard Law School and taught at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, and many of his campaign aides are drawn from that milieu.

The Vice President said there was a double standard in the way Republicans and Democrats were viewed as far as class. He said reporters asked of him, ''How can a guy born to relative comfort understand the problems of this group or that? They don't ask that of Democrats that are born to it.''

Mr. Bush was in a breezy mood about his less-than-stellar, hourlong interview with Ted Koppel live on ABC News ''Nightline'' Thursday. Mr. Bush fended off the usual questions, posed by Mr. Koppel, about what he knew and when he knew it in the Iran-contra affair and in dealings with the Panamanian leader, Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega. 'Next Time, Call Me Barbara'

Although Mr. Koppel did not shake loose any new information, he pursued Mr. Bush so relentlessly that the Vice President became somewhat flustered and referred to the ABC newsman as ''Dan'' several times. Finally, an annoyed Mr. Koppel rebutted: ''Next time, call me Barbara,'' referring to his ABC colleague, Barbara Walters.

Mr. Bush apologized to Mr. Koppel on the air for confusing him with Dan Rather, the CBS News anchorman who conducted the fiery interview with Mr. Bush in January. ''I did worry that Ted Koppel would think that I was being smart alecky and making some subtle connection between the interviews,'' the Vice President said.

Mirthful reporters showed up at a Bush press conference today wearing ''Dan'' name tags, and a good-natured Vice President jokingly began calling all the reporters ''Dan'' or ''Barbara.''

A chagrined Mr. Bush explained his confusion by saying that for the interview, he sat in a Houston television studio and had to look into a blank monitor when responding to questions from Mr. Koppel, who was in Washington. ''Finally my staff hung a sign that said 'Ted' on the camera and from there on, I behaved,'' Mr. Bush said.

He was philosphical about his performance, giving himself a middling score. Needs 'the Right Balance'

''I couldn't say it was a plus; I don't think it was an appalling minus,'' he said. ''Am I going to call up and ask for a rematch? No. I think I may go head-on-head with Evans and Novak next,'' referring to Rowland Evans and Robert Novak, who have recently written columns critical of Mr. Bush.

''There's certainly room for improvement,'' he said. Asked where, he offered: ''Oh, I don't know. Just being a little feisty. I got too laid-back. Somewhere between going ballistic with Dan Rather and being benign and pleasant with Ted Koppel is the real me. I have to find the right balance between them.''

In his speech at the unity dinner in Denver, the Vice President showed that he was going to continue throwing darts about the class issue. A Good Opening Line

''Governor Dukakis draws his foreign policy views from the latest trend in the Harvard Yard boutique,'' he told the Republican audience. ''He says he would rely heavily on multilateral organizations such as the U.N.

''Well, the U.N. does some useful things: It has an active, sometimes effective, economic and social council. But I was our ambassador to the U.N., and I know its limitations.''

During the dinner, where he shared the stage with his former Republican rivals Senator Bob Dole of Kansas, Representative Jack F. Kemp of upstate New York, former Gov. Pete du Pont of Delaware and Alexander M. Haig Jr., Mr. Bush even managed to turn his mistake with Mr. Koppel into a good opening line for his speech.

''It was a Freudian slip,'' he said. ''Now I'm worried, now that the campaign's started, that I won't call Michael Dukakis 'Jimmy.' ''

Photo of Vice Pres. Bush arriving in Denver, where he was met by his son Neil, and grandson, Pierce, and granddaughter, Lauren (AP)